Pages

Monday, September 2, 2013

My gift card and Limberlost nursery

As you know I received a gift card for Limberlost Nursery for my second place winning in the gardening competition. At first I wanted a dwarf avocado, but they no longer stock them so I wandered around looking for inspiration. Well my gosh! I could have spent hundreds of dollars there! What beautiful displays, and wonderful, healthy plants.
I started out among the dwarf fruit trees but they were all citrus and I already have a lime and a lime mandarin, so I looked at the more exotic fruit trees/shrubs. I tried barbados cherry before and it was in a swampy area and did not survive, so I got one of those and planted it in the veggie patch. They can be pruned into a small bush. The cherries are quite sour but chock a block full of vitamin C. I sowed a handful of bok choy on either side, and covered them with a fallen paw paw leaf to add some shade. Most of my bok choy is going to seed, now I am going to have to collect the seed before the pods explode. What does everyone else do - do you pick them once the pods have formed, and then hang them to dry?

In the same area I found a coffee tree, which can also be pruned into a small bush. I doubt I will ever get enough for a cup of coffee, but am thinking more along the lines of a a few chocolate covered coffee beans :) The red in the photo just behind the trellis was a lovely red capsicum - I picked it just after this photo - gosh the flavor was awesome! This is the first year I have had any success with capsicum. the coffee bush is surrounded by galangal, turmeric and lemongrass which all grow up in the wet season. I am just going to have to keep those in check so they don't swamp the little tree, and just grow enough for my needs.

I dug out a huge piece of turmeric to make room, so passed that on to a friend whose husband is a chef. I have enough in the freezer for my use. Just grate straight out of the freezer when I need it.

Next I found an abuliton or Chinese lantern. I remember a couple of years ago touring an open garden in Cairns where they had a Chinese lantern hanging around their outdoor verandah and it was lovely. This one has a few little flowers on, lovely red and yellow, and I planted it just outside the gate, so hopefully it will climb up along the side of the gate and then over the other side. If it does well then we will build some sort of framework so that it can form an arbor over the barbecue area. You can just see one of the flowers at the back.

As if that was not enough I still had a little more credit and wandered into a shady area where I saw the most amazing vine climbing up a tree. Called a slipper vine - the bunches of flowers (also red and yellow) hang down for two or three feet. I have planted it under the weeping tea tree where I have a lot of orchids, and hopefully it can also climb from there on to the mandevilla and also the udovia. The lychee tree is so thick that the flowers would be lost in the foliage. I have three stakes to support it until it gets to the branches and then it can climb on its own. That way it is not going to get swamped by the tree roots.

I think I got a great selection of really unusual lovely healthy plants. If you are in the area this is a great place to hang out for a couple of hours! Thank you Limberlost for donating this prize!

10 comments:

You chose well - those plants will enjoy growing in your garden. I can't help with the bok choy seeds. What we don't eat is given to the chooks so they never set seed. I just buy a new packet of seeds each year.

Roz,I hummed and haaed a lot, but think I got some great plants. I thought i might as well save them as they all started to go to seed at the same time. Plus I am enjoying sowing lots of seeds all packed tightly together.

I know that Limberlost Plant Nursery will not be seeing the last of you.What a wide selection to choose from, and you made us all proud by choosing lots of wonderful plants.A note of warning about the Barbados Cherry, the leaves itch if you are allergic like I am. The cherries are sour, but tend to be sweeter during the rainy season. They make great juices and jams. Like you mentioned they're the highest source of Vitamin C around.

Oh dear - I avoid wandering nurseries looking for inspiration. I have a bad habit of finding it a dozen times or more!

As for bok choi seed collection, I let the pods dry on the plant then collect them. I lose a bunch that way and end up with heaps of volunteer plants but I think the seeds are riper then. I can pop them open right away and save them in an envelope.

Laura,I could have spent waaay more, but stuck to the gift card amount of 50.00. My pods have formed now and I tied them loosely together as they kept falling into the paths. I might pick them and put them into a paper bag to dry out.

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

Photos lost

You will notice that in some of my older posts the photos have been lost. I am sooo sorry. I have left them there because they still contain a lot of good information. Where appropriate I will slowly begin adding in more photos, so hang in there!

Other places to find me......

Quotes I enjoy

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables, they probably get jet-lagged, just like people do - Elizabeth Berry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7

The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,

but in developing the capacity to enjoy less

- paraphrased from Socrates quote

“See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

Nature in all its diversity grants us a glimpse into the heart of God the Father which is nothing but Love.

It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you seeHendry David Thoreau

Making a garden is not a gentle hobby for the elderly,to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole, and once it has done so he will have to acceptthat his life is going to be radically changed. May SartonPlant Dreaming Deep, 1983

When the trees sing,It doesn't really matterIf you know the song, Or if you know the words,Or even if you know the tune.What really matters is knowing ....That the trees are singing at all.Mattie Stepanek, 1990-2004

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walkor an evening saunter;to be thrilled by the stars at night:to be elated over a bird's nestor a wildflower in spring... these are some of the rewards of the simple life.John Burroughs, 1837-1921

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”– Thoreau

“Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

You who walkmaybe with troubled thoughts....Come, enter here and restand may the sweet serenityof growing things....and the heavenly peacebe mirrored in thy soul.by Michael Palmer

Gods GardenThe Lord God planted a gardenIn the first white days of the world,And he set there an angel wardenIn a garment of light enfurled.So near to the peace of HeavenThat the hawk might nest with the wren,For there in the cool of the evenGod walked with the first of men.And I dream that these garden closesWith their shade and their sun-flecked sodAnd their lilies and bowers of roses,Were laid by the hand of God.The kiss of the sun for pardon,The song of the birds for mirth, -One is nearer God’s heart in a gardenThan anywhere else on earth.For He broke it for us in a gardenUnder the olive-treesWhere the angel of strength was the wardenAnd the soul of the world found ease.Dorothy Francis Gurney

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.Mary Jean Iron

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.Albert Einstein

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."~ John Lubbock******************************************************